Revolution

Grace

“Where do you think they went?” Todd asked, kicking the knocked over kitchen chair.

I huffed, leaning against the wall, with my right leg bent to brace against it for extra balance. “Who knows? They are probably trying to get out of Cali like everyone else. Didn’t you hear them last night? They believe the vamp rumors. I don’t know how they think they are getting out though. All the freeways have been destroyed. They weren’t exactly in the right shape to climb the mountains either.”

I played with a shoulder length strand of my black hair and the awesome purple tips I gave myself last week.

We were all released early from school the day before, nobody wanted to stay when bombs were dropping around us. As soon as we got home, our foster parents forbade us from coming out of our rooms for the rest of the night.

I hardly slept last night because of the noise. They fought all the time, and not just with their words. Dick never laid a hand on Karen. He just threw things. Although sometimes I wondered if she might have been the one to throw things. They each had a temper on them.

From the looks of things this morning, they ran off in the middle of the night, leaving us to fend for ourselves.

“What are we going to do?”

I looked up at his odd question. Todd was your typical Cali boy; tall, skinny, blonde hair and blue eyes. And an idiot who thought the world revolved around him.

“We? Since when did it become a we? I’ve always been a me,” I pointed one finger at my chest and then pointed at him, “and you’ve always been a you. Don’t act like it’s ever been anything different.”

Todd grinned at me and stepped closer. “Awe, come on now, Gracey. We’ve had a little fun together now and then.” He placed one hand on the wall next to my head, the other on my waist.

Sometimes I forgot how much taller he was than me. Thanks to my mom’s side. I was barely five and half feet.

I snorted. “We’ve burned steam off, nothing more. Don’t start acting like you’ve ever cared about me. I had an itch, and you had the only scratcher around.”

Todd and I had been going to the same school for years. A school that looked down on foster kids. I was far from thrilled when I got put into this house with him, just a month or two shy of a year ago. He was kind to me one day, after a really awful day at school. I needed a break from reality for a few minutes. One thing led to another, and there you have it. After that, if I needed a break, or a release, I just knocked on his door.

Todd was a man-whore. Not that I was much better. Hell, my mother was a paid one.

As soon as I hit puberty she had one of those birth control implants shoved in me. She had dreams of us working together, going after father and son duos. Her favorite movie was Heartbreakers, where the mother and daughter were a con team. Unfortunately for her, her next client was her last, and I was in foster care by the end of the week. Cops never really told me what, or who, killed my mother. I may not be a genius, but I also wasn’t stupid. I was sure it was one of her marks.

I wasn’t going to get all therapisty and say Todd and I were the way we were because neither of us felt loved in our short lives, so we acted out in order to try and feel it. But it was logical.

“Doesn’t mean it wasn’t fun, Gracey.” He deepened his voice, which sounded stupid.

Todd was okay looking, I guess. His confidence made up for what he was lacking, most of the time. His intelligence lacked too much for it to do any good there.

I just glared at him until he finally got the message. He lifted both hands in surrender and took two steps back.

“Look, we both know this place is going to hell in a handbasket right now. I think it’s better if we stick together. Two heads are better than one and all that.”

As he spoke, flashes went through my mind. This had happened to me enough times that I had mastered the art of keeping a blank face through it all. If my mother knew I had one, then she would try and use it to her advantage. It only took me a few times to realize that.

The first flash was of Todd and I, together. A lot. A lot, a lot. But it showed signs of being further down the road. The second was still of us both, only dead. In the clothes we were wearing now.

Only two options laid before us. Either we stuck together, or we both died. I wasn’t sure where the specifics of what we were doing and why came into play. The important message was clear, if we wanted to live, we had to be together.

I sighed and leaned the back of my head against the wall. “Fine, we stick together. We can watch each other’s backs.”

He grinned and stepped toward me again. I raised my hand to stop him, not saying a word, just glaring at him again. Once again, he laughed as he moved away.

Just because the vision said it was going to happen, didn’t mean we had to start the other part now.

I rolled my eyes at him, then dropped my foot and turned to walk to the living room. “I’m putting the news on. I want to know what’s going on out there.”

Todd quietly came and sat on the small couch next to me. I turned the old tv on, then pulled my feet up next to me, putting them between us. The only news channel that still worked was one of the major broadcasting networks that were stationed outside of our sunny, hellish, state.

We sat there for hours, watching the news cover different cities and towns all over California.

Occasionally, they showed clips of soldiers gearing up to come to our aid, firefighters and cops trying to put out fires (figuratively and literally), and even government officials debating how to respond.

At some point, Todd made us sandwiches. The only time I moved from the couch was to use the bathroom. It was all too surreal. I just couldn’t take my eyes off the screen.

“We can see thousands of cars trying to take the smaller roads through the mountains, trying to escape from Sacramento. This same scene can be seen in all the major cities throughout California. Bombings have wiped out the freeways, major highways, and government buildings.” The perfectly put together blonde reporter was saying.

“Look at them, are they even moving?” The man wearing a very bad toupee asked her.

The blonde’s eyes scrunched as she looked at the video in front of her. “It doesn’t look like it, does it?”

We watched with them, waiting to see any movement.

The sudden flash of light blinded us both, causing us to flinch back and cover our eyes. The small camera screen in the upper corner went black. A moment later, the reporters pulled themselves together, visibly shaking, and holding a finger to their ears.

“We are hearing from our chopper in the sky that what we just witnessed was in fact an explosion coming from the road. We are getting reports of similar explosions happening all over California.”

The blonde didn’t look so put together now. Nope, she looked like she was trying not to pee her pants. Even her makeup couldn’t hide the paling of her skin.

Mr. Toupee broke in. “This just in, many of the bodies found in Northern California, from attacks over the last week, have been autopsied. What had once been thought to be the calling card of whatever gang is responsible looks to actually be the cause of death. As each body studied so far has been completely drained of blood. While no one wants to make it official, it seems like California is in fact being attacked by a horde of vampires.”

The blonde began laughing hysterically, like she was about to lose it.

Todd and I both jumped when an explosion was heard not far off, the windows shook from the pressure, and all power in the house blinked off. In less than a second, it felt like we were thrown back into the stone age.

“Was that just the breaker? Or did Pinky and the Brain forget to pay the power bill again?” Todd asked, using the nickname he sometimes used for the loving and responsible foster parents we had the privilege to live with. The wife was short, fat, and cranky. Her husband was tall and skinny, and a complete airhead. It was obvious to see who wore the pants in that marriage.

I pushed off the couch and walked toward the front door. The sun was beginning to set, but the streetlights were not on. Todd came up behind me, putting one hand on my back, something I actually appreciated now. I was scared spitless.

Neighbors were on their front steps hollering to each other about losing their power. We could see smoke and flames riding in the sky from somewhere in the distance. Coming from a few different places. How much more could our poor city take?

Todd pulled me inside. “We need to lock all the doors and windows. Now.” Even though he was trying to sound firm, I could still hear a small shake in his voice.

We were both high school seniors, nearing the end of our incarceration in the foster system. Neither of us should have to be the ones calling the shots right now.

We split up and ran around the house to make sure everything was closed up tight. Afterwards, Todd grabbed my hand and dragged me into the master bedroom. It wasn’t much bigger than ours, but the bed sure was. We both had beds that were barely bigger than a cot.

“Why are we in here? This room has the biggest window.”

“Yes, but this window faces the backyard. Both of ours face the sides of the house. And I don’t know about you, but I really don’t want to be alone tonight.” He put a hand up to stave off any remarks I would make. “I’m not saying we are going to be messing around, I’m just saying the comfort of someone else would be nice, that’s all.”

He made a good point. I nodded and sat on the bed. Todd climbed into the middle, leaning against the headboard. He put a hand up for me, inviting me to come closer. The stubborn part of me wanted to argue. The scared stiff and on the verge of a mental breakdown part took his hand and let him hold me.

Neither of us spoke for over an hour. I didn’t know about him, but I had silent tears leaking out of me.

Todd put a hand over my mouth, smothering my scream, when we heard a window crashing in the house next door.

We listened as the family screamed, until they weren’t anymore. The sound of deep laughter was growing closer, and another flash flew through my mind.

In the first one, Todd and I both became vampire food.

In the second, we didn’t. The difference between the two was odd. But I didn’t give it a second thought, as I was in no hurry to die tonight. I spun in my seat, straddling Todd, slamming my lips against his.

As a teenage boy, he reacted immediately. He was already ripping my shirt over my head.

Todd stalled as we heard someone jumping the fence to our yard. I grabbed his face and held it firmly, forcing him to look at me.

“Todd.” I whispered. “Follow my lead, ignore them, just go with whatever happens. This is the only way we will survive.” He opened his mouth to argue, I cut him off instead. “No! Just listen to me, I will explain how I know this later. But right now, you need to follow my lead.” I kissed him again and forced out a smile. “Scratch the itch, Todd. Focus on that and nothing else. No arguing.”

He nodded numbly, the voices becoming clearer as Todd rolled us to my back, making quick work of my jean shorts.

“Think we’ll find any goodies here? Those last two left a sour taste in my mouth.”

“I hope so. I don’t mind a little fear once in a while, sour can be fun. But that’s all we’ve had for days.”

Todd started to pause as their shadows appeared in front of the window. I gripped him hard and pulled him, helping him where he was sadly failing. Understandably. I needed him to be sharp though. It didn’t take much before he caught up to me.

“Hmm, smell that, Rick? I think we just hit pay dirt.” One of the deep voices chuckled. “Think they’ll let us join?”

Rick laughed. “Think we’ll give them a choice?” The other laughed as his fist went through the window.

I held Todd against my lips, keeping both of us from screaming. “Ooo, Rick. It’s puppies. I’ve always wanted a pet. And look, they don’t care about anything else going on.” The other man whimpered like a begging child.

We heard the sound of broken glass being moved, and what sounded like someone climbing through a window. Todd and I both kept our focus on each other, not sparing the vampires a glance, trying to pretend they weren’t there.

One of them ran a hand down the back of Todd’s head slowly, moving down his back until he landed on his butt. Then he smacked him hard. I bit back the hysterical laugh when Todd rocked into me harder. The hand then came between us, moving along both of us, inspecting us.

“Ryley, we don’t have time to play. We need to keep moving.” Rick said, his voice not as sure as his words were. He wanted to play too, but someone had to stay on task.

We heard a zipper moving in the dark. “Just give me a few minutes, Rick. This won’t take long. I can’t tell you how much I love puppies. It’s not fair that we aren’t allowed to have a harem like Curtis and the others.”

Todd barely held back the grunt of pain at what was going on behind him. It didn’t take long before he was moving faster into me, all thoughts of the men in the room gone.

Either that or someone else was behind him moving him along.

“They have a higher rank, of course they get harems. Hurry it up. We don’t want to get in trouble for being late.” Rick sighed as Ryley was obviously not in any hurry. “Fine. I’ll wait outside. Leave them alive and you can make them your little pets another day. No feeding though, you’ve already wasted enough time.”

By the time Rick had gone through the bedroom door, checking out the rest of the house, Ryley was grunting and both boys slowed.

“Such a good puppy.” Ryley cooed, petting Todd’s head. He knelt down at our side, his pants still around his ankles. “You two stay right here, and I’ll be back tomorrow. Maybe I’ll be nice and bring you food. We won’t tell anyone else. You can be my secret harem. It’s not like I have any important information that you could overhear like the others.” He rubbed his hand down my chest again, and then went lower. To where Todd and I were still connected. “Such a pretty pussy cat. Hmm. Yes. I’ll be back. And I will take care of you.” He leaned in and licked my chest, and then Todd’s.

He was smacking his lips and humming happily as he walked out the door, finally putting his pants back on.

Todd started to move away, but I wrapped my legs around his thighs, rocking my hips. It wasn’t time yet. They could still come back. We waited long enough to finish what we were doing, something that only biology could have been to blame for.

When we were sure they were long gone, Todd collapsed next to me.

“My butt hurts.” He complained, making us both break into a short burst of laughter.

He pulled me into his arms, and I cried. I was pretty sure I felt tears falling on my head too. Soon enough, we both fell asleep.

I woke up the next morning, the sun brighter than it normally would be as it shone through the broken window, the curtains still moved to the side. Todd was already awake, he looked like he hadn’t gotten much sleep. I pushed away, sitting up.

“Care to explain what happened last night?”

“Not really, no.” I stood, stretching my stiff limbs.

“You said, if I followed along and didn’t say anything, you would tell me.” His voice was accusatory. Probably thinking of what happened to him the night before because he followed my insane plan.

I pulled my t-shirt over my head and turned to face him, my hands on my hips. “Look. As crazy as it sounds, what we did, saved our lives. You heard them talking last night. What that vampire did to you was better than draining our blood until we were dead.”

While I was talking he turned his body to face me, all his teenage glory out in the open. “You think they were vamps?”

I pinched the bridge of my nose before looking at him again. “I don’t know what to think. For now, I’m going with that.”

“How did you know that would save us though? Have you dealt with vampires before?”

I sighed and sat back down on the bed, might as well get this over with since we were going to be together for a while. At least according to my vision.

“I get these flashes, kind of like visions of the future. Only, they come in like twos or threes. Like they are potential futures or something. The future isn’t set in stone, our decisions change it every day, every minute. Last night, when we heard them coming, I got two flashes, one where they bled us dry and the other where they didn’t. I chose door number two, obviously.”

When he didn’t say anything back, I headed into the master bathroom. One look at the huge tub - well it was bigger than ours at any rate - and I knew what I was doing this morning.

I had only been soaking for a few minutes when the bathroom door opened. I sprang forward, holding my knees to my chest.

“Knock much? What the hell are you doing in here?” I yelled at him.

Todd didn’t even close the door behind him, he just strolled forward, still not dressed. He didn’t answer me until he was stepping into the tub.

“Move up a little. I need this more than you do. I earned it after last night.”

I started with a small laugh at first, and then broke into full laughter. Todd said it with such a straight face, and he was right. As soon as he was down, he pulled my chest to lean me against him.

“I don’t know what you are trying to hide. I’ve already seen it all, a few times now.”

“Shut up.” I elbowed him in the ribs and let myself relax against him.

We let the hot water melt away some of our fears and stress in silence. The water was nearly cool when he spoke up.

“What do we do now, Gracey? Are we staying and waiting for him to come back, so we can become his little pets?”

“I don’t really know. I’ve been thinking about that all morning.” Well, the half hour or so that I’d been awake anyway.

“Well, what do your visions say?”

“Wow, you’re accepting that pretty good.” I had never told anyone before. I was already labeled a freak because of my foster status, I didn’t need another one.

“Well, the way I figure it. Your little psychic thingy probably saved our butts…no, saved our lives. My butt was not saved, my butt was sacrificed.” I worked to stifle the giggle at his indignation. “If vampires are real, then I figure your little psychic visions are too.” I felt his shoulders shrug behind me.

“They don’t really work like that. They mostly come on their own. I’m working on calling them, but I’m not very good yet. I’ve mostly been practicing during exams, like when I didn’t know an answer.”

“Ok, well. What do you do that brings them up then?”

I thought about it carefully, wanting to make sure I did this right. “I think about the path laid before me, and my options.”

“Alright, so let’s start with that. Option one, stay here and become vampire pets. Which probably means he is going to be drinking from us once in a while. Unless once is all they can do and then we are dead.”

“He did say he’d bring us food, too. That means we won’t starve.”

“True. He also called us his own personal harem. What was that all about anyway?”

“Um. A harem is a group of like concubines or something. So, I think the boss vampires have their own harems. People they probably feed off and do other things too. They are always there. I imagine it’s like a status thing with them. Only the higher up ones have their own. Ryley said we wouldn’t be hearing anything important. I wonder if that means harems are chosen like a job thing, humans they know won’t tattle on them to other people.”

“Alright. So, option one is to become this guy’s pets, his secret harem, and have food, and stay off the streets. Option two, is… to what?”

“Option two is to leave here, find somewhere else to stay, and pray we don’t get killed by someone else.”

“Yes, but now we know what will keep them from killing us.” I smacked his wandering hand that he tried to demonstrate with. “Hey, get used to it babe, it’s you and me against the world. We ain’t got no one else.” He leaned down into my ear, continuing softly. “Besides, you know you like it.”

“Shut up.” I grumbled, trying to hide the smile at his playfulness.

I didn’t stop his hand from moving up the next time, he only held onto me. A bit possessively too if you ask me.

“Do we have any other options? Cause, neither of those sound good to me.”

I closed my eyes and steadied my breathing, as close to meditating as I could get in a shared bathtub, focusing on one option or the other.

If we stayed, we’d be turned into Ryley’s personal feeding trough. He would get all the benefits along with it. I also saw him failing at his promise to bring us food, at least not bringing enough for us to live off.

The other option bubbled up in my mind, a shelter, groups of people. I could sense a path that led from there. A third option we hadn’t yet considered. One that led to a large house, with an evil looking man, and groups of humans. I saw myself with a purpose. I saw war. A large one.

“The first option does not look good. Ryley will not provide us with enough food. The next leads us down a long path. We find shelter, and food. We will find more friends and take them on this journey with us. We travel somewhere with them. To a larger house. And there will be a war. What we decide will affect the way the war turns. I can’t see all the details, there are too many decisions that need to be made first.”

“Option two, for now, it is then. Until we figure out option three.”

“I think option three is going to be us creating our own harem. I think we can use it to spy on the big bad. Yes, I see it more clearly now.” I closed my eyes tight, focusing. I saw a cell phone in my hand, one I hid under a mattress. “We can get close to the vamps in charge. We can spy, we can send information back to the good guys.” I didn’t have a cell phone, so I had no idea how that was going to come about.

Todd held tighter, not in a search of pleasure, it was his reaction to the unknown, and him trying to stay strong for me.

“We don’t know who they are though. We don’t even know who the big bad is.”

I sighed and rotated to my side, laying my head on him. Forcing visions was tiring. “That part of the path will reveal itself as we go along.”

I yawned and felt his other hand move up and down my arm. Todd really wasn’t so bad. I was kind of glad he was on my side.

“So, what you’re saying is that my butt better get used to being sore before all this is over?”

I giggled tiredly at him.

“Yes.” I patted his chest softly. “And accept the fact that you may be the one hurting someone else’s too. And doing a whole lot of things you never dreamed of… unless you did. No judgment.”

He pinched my butt and I yelped, jumping away, splashing water out of the tub. After laughing at me, he sighed.

“I guess someone has to do all the dirty work to clean this mess up. Might as well be us.”

I barely hummed in agreement as I fell asleep on him. I woke up an hour later, back in the big bed. Todd was in the kitchen, packing up whatever he could find.